EP2061061A1

EP2061061A1 - Leakage circuit breaker

Info

Publication number: EP2061061A1
Application number: EP06791265A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Bangquan He
Original assignee: Zhejiang Zhiming Electric Imp & Exp Co Ltd
Current assignee: ZHEJIANG DINWAY SCI-TECH CO., LTD
Priority date: 2006-08-17
Filing date: 2006-10-16
Publication date: 2009-05-20
Anticipated expiration: 2026-10-16
Also published as: EP2061061B1; ATE489720T1; CN2938385Y; DE602006018541D1; WO2008022494A1; EP2061061A4

Abstract

A leakage circuit breaker comprises a housing (1), a breaker tripping mechanism, a bimetal system. The leakage breaker tripping mechanism is comprised of a breaker tripping mechanism and a leakage tripping mechanism, wherein a lever A (10) of the breaker tripping mechanism and a lever B (23) of the leakage tripping mechanism are connected through a lever joint shaft to form double-decked tripping mechanism; a bimetal system, wherein one end of a bimetal piece (15) thereof is connected with one end of a link (14) to form an L-shape, the other end of the link (14) is connected with a latch A (6) of the breaker tripping mechanism. The tripping mechanism has a simple structure. The latch and the jumper are made of the same material, so they don't tend to deform. A conductive piece (17) of the bimetal piece is connected to the wiring plate (19) by a flexible joint block (18), so the displacement of the conductive piece (17) is hardly occurred.

Description

Field of Invention

The present invention relates to a leakage circuit breaker, more particularly, to a leakage circuit breaker integrated with functions of overload protection, short circuit protection and earth leakage protection.

Background of Invention

The jumper of the breaker in the conventional product is made in metal material, and the latch is made in plastic material, both of the materials having different features bring a larger impact friction to the latch, so that the latch is prone to deform, and the stability and life span of the mechanism are reduced; also, the conventional leakage tripping mechanism has a complex structure, and the handle is often unable to be operated to its position when cooperating with other members and the trip tends to fail upon the earth leakage, also the cost thereof is high; furthermore, a hard plate is welded between the conventional conductive piece and the wiring plate of the bimetal system, the displacement of the bimetal piece is easy to caused when the conductive piece is connected to the external leads and fixed, so that the accuracy and reliability of the product is seriously affected; moreover, the rated current of the conventional product only is 6 to 60A, and the circuit breaking ability is only 6KA; also, there is no state indicator for the contact.

Summary of Invention

Accordingly, an object of present invention is to provide a leakage circuit breaker integrated with functions of overload protection, short circuit protection and earth leakage protection. In order to solve above technical problems, the present invention provides a leakage circuit breaker comprising a housing, a leakage breaker tripping mechanism, a bimetal system, wherein the leakage breaker tripping mechanism is comprised of a breaker tripping mechanism and a leakage tripping mechanism, wherein a lever A of the breaker tripping mechanism is connected to a lever B of the leakage tripping mechanism to form a double-deck tripping mechanism through a joint shaft; the bimetal system has a bimetal piece having one end connected to one end of a link to form an L-shape, the other end of the link is connected to a latch A of the breaker tripping mechanism.
In the breaker tripping mechanism, a handle is connected with one end of a handle link, the other end of the handle link is connected with a jumper A and a state indicator, the latch A locked with the jumper A is connected with the lever A and a movable contact A, the movable contact A is connected with one end of a spring A, the other end of the spring A is fixed with a pin fixed to the housing, a static contact A corresponding to the movable contact A is connected with the bimetal system through a wire. The breaker tripping mechanism is further provided with an electromagnetic system comprising an iron core and a pusher.
In the leakage tripping mechanism, the lever B thereof is connected with a movable contact B, one end of the lever B is abutted against a long arm end of a restoring lever, a static contact B corresponding to the movable contact B is connected with a wire frame through a wire, a jumper B, a latch B and a clap restoring piece are connected with respective pins of the housing, a short arm end of the restoring lever is engaged with one end of the latch B, the other end of the latch B is engaged with the jump B (26), the other end of the jumper B is abutted against a movable end of the clap restoring piece. The leakage tripping mechanism is further provided with a toroidal magnetic core, an output line of the toroidal magnetic core is connected with a trip, a trip pusher is provided inside of the trip.
A flexible joint block is employed to connect between a conductive piece and a wiring plate.
The present invention has following advantages:
1) the jumper and latch in the present invention are made of synthetic plastics with high intensity, high-temperature resistance, and good abrasion resistance, so that the deformation of the latch is avoided and the stability and the life span of the tripping mechanism is extended;
2) the leakage breaker tripping mechanism of the present invention has a simple structure, it also has a stable capability, a flexible tripping, a good reliability on circuit breaking, and it is easy to be assembled, further more, it has reduced cost and improved efficiency.
3) A flexible joint block is employed between the conductive piece and the wiring plate. Accordingly, the connection between the conductive piece and the wiring plate is easy to implement and the displacement of the conductive piece is not easy to occur when connecting with the lead, such that the stability thereof is significantly improved.
4) the present invention has a compact structure, small volume, light weight, and flexible operability, it also has the function of indicating open circuit of neutral line and state of contacts so that it is easy to identify the contacting status of the contact. The duplex connecting terminal can use bus line, the wiring screw of the complex slot has a larger torsional moment; therefore, the wire is fastened and secured. The present invention has good reliability and is advanced in technology.
5) the present invention is adapted to a circuit having AC of 50Hz, rated voltage of up to 230V, rated current of 63A, the circuit breaking capability is 1OKA, and a contact state indicator is provided; both sides of the breaker have double functional connecting terminals which can connect with the bus line and single core lead, so it has good connecting performance. It can be served as short circuit protection, leakage protection and the overload protection, which can prevent the fire and people accident caused by leakage circuit or electric shock from occurrence.

Brief Description of the Drawing

Fig. 1 is a front structural schematic view of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a structural rear view of Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is a structural schematic view of the lever joint shaft of the present invention;
Fig. 4 (including Figs. 4A and 4B) is a front and a rear schematic views of the breaker tripping mechanism under a closing state according to the present invention;
Fig. 5 (including Figs. 5A and 5B) are a front and a rear schematic views of the leakage tripping mechanism under a closing state according the present invention; and
Fig. 6 is a schematic view showing the connection between the conductive piece and the wiring plate according to the present invention.

Description of the reference signs in the views:

1: housing	2: electromagnetic system	3: pusher
4: handle	5: handle link	6: latch A
7: jumper A	8: state indicator	9: lever joint shaft
10: lever A	11: movable contact A	12: static contact A
13: tension spring	14: link	15: bimetal piece
16: screw	17: conductive piece	18: flexible joint block
19: wiring plate	20: wire frame	21: removable contact B
22: static contact B	23: lever B	24: restoring lever
25: latch B	26: jumper B	27: clap restoring piece
28: test button	29: pin on the latch A	30: trip pusher
31: trip	32: toroidal magnetic core

Detailed Description of Preferred Embodiments

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described hereinafter in detail with reference to the attached drawings, wherein the like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout the specification. The present invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as being limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that the present disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the invention to those skilled in the art.
The present invention provides a leakage circuit breaker comprising a housing (1), a leakage breaker tripping mechanism, a bimetal system, wherein the leakage breaker tripping mechanism is comprised of a breaker tripping mechanism and a leakage tripping mechanism, a lever A (10) of the breaker tripping mechanism and a lever B (23) of the leakage tripping mechanism are connected through a lever joint shaft (9) to form double-decked tripping mechanism; the bimetal system has a bimetal piece (15) having one end connected to one end of a link (14) to form L-shape, the other end of the link (14) is connected to a latch A (6) of the breaker tripping mechanism.
In the breaker tripping mechanism, a handle (4) is connected with one end of a handle link (5), the other end of the handle link (5) is connected with a jumper A (7) and a state indicator (8), the latch A (6) locked with the jumper A (7) is connected with the lever A and a movable contact A (11), the movable contact A (11) is connected with one end of a spring A (13), the other end of the spring A (13) is fixed to a pin fixed to the housing (1), a static contact A (12) corresponding to the movable contact A (11) is connected with the bimetal system through a wire. The breaker tripping mechanism is further provided with an electromagnetic system (2) comprising an iron core and a pusher (3).
In the leakage tripping mechanism, the lever B (23) thereof is connected with a movable contact B (21), one end of the lever B (23) is abutted against a long arm end of a restoring lever (24), a static contact B (22) corresponding to the movable contact B (21) is connected with a wire frame (20) through a wire, a jumper B (26), a latch B (25) and a clap restoring piece (27) are connected with respective pins fixed to the housing (1), the shorter end of the restoring lever (24) is engaged with one end of the latch B (25), the other end of the latch B (25) is engaged with the jumper B (26), the other end of the jumper B (26) is abutted against a movable end of the clap restoring piece (27). The leakage tripping mechanism is further provided with a toroidal magnetic core (32), an output line of coils around the toroidal magnetic core (32) is connected with a trip (31), a trip pusher (30) is provided inside of the trip (31).
A flexible joint block (18) is employed to connect between a conductive piece (17) and a wiring plate (19).
The operation principle of the breaker tripping mechanism according lo the present invention operated from an initial state lo a close state will be described with reference to Figs. 4A and 4B: the handle (4) is moved upwardly and the handle link (5) is driven lo rotate, the handle link (5) is connected with the jumper A (7); due lo the pushing action of the handle link (5), the jumper A (7) is engaged with the latch A (6); the jumper A (7) drives the lever A (10) lo rotate, the lever A (10) brings the movable contact A (11) into contact with the static contact A (12), and at the lame time, the state indicator (8) is turned from green lo red, thereby, the breaker tripping mechanism is brought into a powered state.
The operation principle of the leakage tripping mechanism according lo the present invention operated from an initial state lo a close state will be described by referring lo Figs. 5A, 5B and Fig. 3: When the handle (4) of the breaker tripping mechanism is moved upwardly lo drive the handle link (5) to rotate as well as lo drive the lever A (10), the lever joint shaft (9) connected with the lever A (10) drives the lever B (23) and rotate the restoring lever (24) so as lo forte the latch B (25) lo be engaged with the jumper (26) and so as lo urge the movable contact B (21) lo come into contact with the static contact B (22). Thereby, the leakage tripping mechanism also starts lo operate. At the same time, the lever B (23) drives the clap restoring piece (27) lo clap on the trip pusher (30), so that the trip pusher is restored and waits lo effect again when leakage occurs again.
The present invention is integrated with functions of overload protection, short circuit protection and leakage protection as described as followed:
1) Overload Protection: when the circuit is powered on, a current is produced therein; when the current is larger than the rated current, the bimetal piece (15) is heated to bend so as to pull the link (14), so that the latch A (6) and the jumper A (7) are driven to separate from each other, and under the action of the tension spring (13), the movable contact A (11) is rapidly separated from the static contact A (12). Meanwhile, the lever joint shaft (9) connected with the lever A (10) drives the lever B (23) so that the movable contact B (21) is also rapidly separated from the static contact B (22) under the action of the tension spring (13), thereby, the handle (4) is restored to the initial state and the state indicator (8) is turned from red to green.
2) Short Circuit Protection: when short circuit happens, coils in the electromagnetic system (2) generates a strong magnetic field, the iron core is pulled to urge the pusher (3) of the electromagnetic system to push the latch A (6) so as to separate from the jumper A (7), and the movable contact A (11) is rapidly separated from the static contact A (12) under the action of the tension spring (13). Meanwhile, the lever joint shaft (9) connected with the lever A (10) drives the lever B (23), so that the movable contact B (21) is also rapidly separated from the static contact B (22) under the action of the tension spring (13), thereby, the handle (4) is restored to the initial state and the state indicator (8) is turned from red to green.
3) Leakage Protection: a simulated leakage is generated when the test button (28) is pushed. The coils around the toroidal magnetic core (32) generate a weak voltage when the leakage current flows around the toroidal magnetic core (32), such voltage signal generates a magnetic field in the coils of the trip (31), which pulls the trip pusher (30). The trip pusher (30) pushes the clap restoring piece (27), then to push the jumper B (26) to make it separate from the latch B (25), and at the same time, the latch B (25) drives the pin (29) connected with the latch A so that the latch A(6) is separated from the jumper A (7); under the action of the tension spring (13), the movable contact A (11) and the static contact A (12) as well as the movable contact B (21) and the static contact B (22) are rapidly separated from each other, respectively. Thereby, the handle (4) is restored to the initial state and the state indicator (8) is turned from red to green.
As shown in Fig. 6, the flexible joint block (18) is employed to connect between the conductive piece (17) and the wiring plate (19) in the present invention, when the wiring frame (20) is connected with external lead and fixes the screw (16), it won't cause the displacement of the bimetal piece (15) and it is easy to assemble. The conventional conductive system for the bimetal piece employs a hard plate welding between the conductive piece (17) and the wiring plate (19); when the wire frame (20) is externally connected with the lead and fixes the screw (16), the displacement of the bimetal piece (15) is easily caused, which significantly affects the accuracy of the product. The present invention employs a flexible joint block (18) so that the stability of the product is notably improved.

Claims

A leakage circuit breaker, comprising: a housing (1), a leakage breaker tripping mechanism, and a bimetal system, characterized in that:
the leakage breaker tripping mechanism is comprised of a breaker tripping mechanism and a leakage tripping mechanism, a lever A (10) of the breaker tripping mechanism and a lever B (23) of the leakage tripping mechanism are connected through a lever joint shaft (9) to form a double-decked tripping mechanism;

the bimetal system has a bimetal piece (15) having one end connected to one end of a link (14) to form an L-shape, the other end of the link (14) is connected to a latch A (6) of the breaker tripping mechanism.
The leakage circuit breaker as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that:
in the breaker tripping mechanism, a handle (4) is connected with one end of a handle link (5), the other end of the handle link (5) is connected with a jumper A (7) and a state indicator (8), the latch A (6) interlocked with the jumper A (7) is connected with the lever A (10) and a movable contact A (11), the movable contact A (11) is connected with one end of a spring A (13), the other end of the spring A (13) is fixed to a pin fixed to the housing (1), a static contact A (12) corresponding to the movable contact A (11) is connected with the bimetal system through a wire, the breaker tripping mechanism is further provided with an electromagnetic system (2) comprising an iron core and a pusher (3).
The leakage circuit breaker as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that:
in the leakage tripping mechanism, the lever B (23) thereof is connected with a movable contact B (21), one end of the lever B (23) is abutted against a long arm end of a restoring lever (24), a static contact B (22) corresponding to the movable contact B (21) is connected with a wire frame (20) through a wire, a jumper B (26), a latch B (25) and a clap restoring piece (27) are connected with respective pins fixed to the housing (1), a short arm end of the restoring lever (24) is engaged with one end of the latch B (25), the other end of the latch B (25) is engaged with one end of the jump B (26), the other end of the jumper B (26) is abutted against a movable end of the clap restoring piece (27), the leakage tripping mechanism is further provided with a toroidal magnetic core (32), an output line of the toroidal magnetic core (32) is connected with a trip (31), a trip pusher (30) is provided inside of the trip (31).
The leakage circuit breaker as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that:
a flexible joint block (18) is employed to connect between a conductive piece (17) and a wiring plate (19).